By Lorraine E. Wright
A few months ago, I had coffee with my friend who was acting as a hiring manager for a busy medical business. Let's call her Suzette. I asked her if she had any interesting stories about interviews she'd done. Suzette proceeded to tell me stories about applicants who behaved so inappropriately, that if I didn't know her so well; I would have sworn she was making them up. Let me share a few of the more entertaining ones with you.
1. Surprise! Applicant A walked into the office, and handed her resume to Suzette. Suzette inquired, "Didn't you see in the job posting that the application was to be made by e-mail or fax only?" Miss A replied, "Oh yes, but I decided to come in anyway because I was certain that if you met me in person, you'd love me and want to give me the job." She proceeded to give Suzette a big sales pitch about how great an employee she'd be. Suzette's comment: "If she wouldn't even follow the specific directions in a job posting, how was I going to get her to follow directions in the office? Also, she was pushy." She didn't get the job.
2. Why are you even here? During the interview, Suzette asked Applicant B if she knew about the company, and if she'd done any research beforehand to find out about them. The response: "Oh no, I'm much too busy to be bothered with stuff like that." Wrong answer! Suzette's comment: "If she was so uninterested in us that she couldn't even bother to find out what we did, why did she even show up for the interview?" She didn't get the job.
3. Pushy much? Applicant C strode into the office for her interview like she owned the place. After answering a few questions, she asked, "So do you mind if I look around?" As she walked around she fired off more questions. "How much vacation will I get? What is the pay? Is this where I'll be sitting?" She acted as if getting the job was a given. Suzette's comment, "If she was that pushy and aggressive at the interview, how was I going to manage her once she worked for us?" She didn't get the job.
4. How do you spell incompetent? Rather than fax or e-mail a resume as requested, Applicant D sent Suzette a text from her cell phone. It read something like, "Can't email resume. Cmputr brkn. Wn can u meet me?" Guess what? She didn't get the interview, let alone the job.
So what have we learned, other than that some people need to attend Remedial Interviewing 101?
a. Study the job posting to be sure you respond exactly as requested. Don't think that faxing a resume instead of mailing it will impress the employer with how innovative and unconventional you are. The employer will just think you either can't read or can't take direction or both.
b. Nothing is more insulting to a hiring manager than to make time in their busy schedule to interview someone, only to find out that person simply couldn't be bothered to spend any time researching the company. At the very least, find out what the company does, and if you know the name of the hiring manager and the president, that's a big plus.
c. At the interview, be confident but not pushy. Be on your best behaviour and don't assume you'll be offered the job, unless the hiring manager tells you it's yours.
I'm guessing that anyone taking the time to read this article would never dream of committing the job interview faux pas of the applicants mentioned here. Still, we can all improve, so do a little research. Don't be another hiring manager's horror story!
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